


shark!

by chaeryeong (iverins)



Category: ITZY (Band), Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Developing Relationship, F/M, JYP Millennials, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 13:21:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19992892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iverins/pseuds/chaeryeong
Summary: Something that sucks about having such a tight-knit group of friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends-of-friends is that everyone gossips. It's just that, unfortunately, sometimes the gossip is true.





	shark!

**Author's Note:**

> a small thing i wrote back in february, meant to be expanded into a more complete jyp millennials verse but who knows when i'll get to it T__T

Chaeryeong's fiddling with the window switch in the backseat when Changbin says so nonchalantly that it's almost suspicious: "Hey, I heard that Hyunjin's back in town."

"Oh," she manages. There's not many ways things can get more awkward than ending up at the same uni as your older sister's boyfriend, and having him act as your no-pay Uber driver ("That's Chaeyeon unnie's seat," Chaeryeong frowned the first time Changbin pulled up to the curb in front of her dorm and he told her to ride shotgun. They all used to be neighbors, and Chaeryeong had to deal with an entire year of hearing Chaeyeon giggle flirtatiously in the passenger seat on the way home as Changbin recounted something Jisung did to get him into detention in homeroom. "Is this your version of the shovel talk?" Changbin sighed, starting the engine back up when he realized Chaeryeong wasn't going to budge. She chose not to respond to that), but Chaeryeong guesses you learn something new everyday. "That's..." The wind coming through the window keeps slapping her in the face. She closes it. "Great."

Changbin snorts before stopping in front of the grocery store and unlocking the car doors. "Sound a little less excited, will you?" Chaeryeong presses her lips together, grimacing. "Don't say I didn't warn you, alright? I'll be back in thirty!" Only after his shiny new Corolla is halfway down the street, Chaeryeong realizes she should've told him thanks.

There'd been signs, Chaeryeong thinks as she grabs a basket and heads straight to the refrigerated beverages aisle. Big, neon, fully-capitalized WARNING!! kind of signs. Something that sucks about having such a tight-knit group of friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends-of-friends is that everyone gossips. "You know what Jisu told me?" her roommate, Ryujin, had brought up a couple weeks ago, as Chaeryeong was brushing her teeth. "That Yeji told her," (Chaeryeong already wanted to crawl under her bed and hide forever at this point. She and Yeji had dated for a month during first semester, and while it had ended amicably, Chaeryeong was still slightly traumatized by Yeji's gently worded _hey, I think we should go back to being just friends_ rejection), "that Hyunjin's coming back next week from that study abroad program or whatever." Ryujin pulled the lollipop she'd been talking over out of her mouth. "Wanna hang out with all of them?"

Chaeryeong reaches for two coffee cans and plunks them down loudly enough to drown out the memory of her own squeaked-out, "Sure." She still hadn't looked at the Facebook event invite. Or given Ryujin a plausible-sounding excuse to get out of it. Okay, yeah, so Chaeryeong was still thinking of said excuse. But that didn't mean –

"Chaeryeong?" Someone's standing beside where she's kneeling with an arm halfway into the refrigerated shelf, and that someone is wearing these all-too-familiar Stan Smiths, well-worn and turning gray at the tops. Well. Chaeryeong winces. There'd been _signs._

Amendment: there's no way _anything_ can be more awkward than running into your ex's twin brother who you maybe kind of sort of accidentally made out with once before he went to a different country for some mobile health clinic trip. Or twice. Chaeryeong feels her face burning behind the curtain of her hair. " _God,_ " is all that she can manage to say.

Hyunjin laughs a little at that. "Nope, just me," he teases. Chaeryeong wonders if he'll go away if she stays very, very still. Hyunjin chooses that moment to crouch down beside her. "You need some help?"

Chaeryeong jumps up when his knee inadvertently touches hers. "How many more do you want?" he asks as if nothing happened, as if Chaeryeong's heart isn't going beat out of her chest and cause a huge bloody mess on aisle five.

"Ten," she says. Hyunjin hums and starts picking them up three at a time. Chaeryeong could really run away now. Should run away now.

"I didn't know you drank this much coffee," Hyunjin starts. And well, _great,_ Chaeryeong's missed her getaway chance. She shrugs, and then he looks up at her, his eyes sparkling in that obnoxiously attractive way that they do, and the mole under his left eye disappears as he smiles. "It's not good for you."

Chaeryeong doesn't know what to say – her cheeks still feel like they're on fire and her heart's pounding faster than she thinks it ever should – so she shrugs again. Hyunjin stands back up, Chaeryeong's basket filled with canned coffee in between them, and continues. "Hey, are you acting this way because I told you I like you?"

That had started as a rumor too. "You know," Ryujin told her, not long after Chaeryeong and Yeji had broken up, "Seungmin told me that it wasn't only like, 'Yeji wanted to break up with you.' Apparently, she and Hyunjin had this whole fight about being honest about their feelings and blah blah blah. He thinks they were arguing about you, or something."

Chaeryeong didn't really think about it again until Hyunjin, who barely showed up to their Chem lecture and usually fell asleep after turning in their weekly homework on the days he did, started asking her to study with him. And then when they'd ended up at that one party, waiting for Felix to finish throwing up in the bushes, and Hyunjin leaned down to look at her through the dark and kissed her when she leaned in too.

"No," she blurts. Chaeryeong wants the linoleum supermarket floor to swallow her whole. (The thing is: the entire time, Chaeryeong never expected all the gossip to actually be right, and then the tips of Hyunjin's ears were red as he said _I think I really like you, I know it's weird because you dated Yeji and we're twins but_ and _You don't have to say anything, I'm going abroad for three months, don't worry too much about it, just wanted you to know_ all in one nervous breath. See: Chaeryeong's love life is an actual hot mess.) "I don't know."

"Okay," says Hyunjin. He fiddles with one of his earrings. "Because it's still true. The whole 'I like you' thing."

Another amendment: there's no way anything can _actually_ be more awkward than running into your ex's twin brother who you maybe kind of sort of accidentally made out with once before he went to a different country for some mobile health clinic trip, and now after running away from your problems for three months, they're back and staring you right in the face. "Oh," she chokes. The tips of Hyunjin's ears are as red as the first time he told her. "I," she tries, ducking behind her hair. "I, uh." That's as far as Chaeryeong can get.

Hyunjin hefts up her basket with all the coffee, and holds his own on his other arm. "You're going to pay now, right?" he asks, sounding just as flustered. "Let's go together."

Chaeryeong feels mortified. Chaeryeong also feels a giddiness swelling in her chest from Hyunjin's awkward second confession and the beginning of a smile tugging at her lips. "Okay," she manages.

And when Hyunjin grins down at her at that, she lets her own show.


End file.
